iGaming market weekly report | Jan 5–11, 2026

Week’s headline

This week’s iGaming momentum was shaped by a clear divide between event-driven attention and suppression forces tied to enforcement, regulation, and seasonality. Slovenia emerged as the standout growth market, where back-to-back events created sustained momentum across the reporting period.

At the opposite end, Laos and Denmark illustrated how quickly demand contracts when sporting narratives are replaced by fraud enforcement, compliance discourse, and winter fixture droughts. Across Southeast Asia and Northern Europe, these dynamics compressed casual, entertainment-led search behavior.

Turkey and Egypt reinforced the broader pattern: football-centric attention continues to act as a powerful acquisition catalyst, while betting-related investigations and legality narratives increasingly influence how — and whether — users move from search into conversion. Together, sport visibility and enforcement salience functioned as the two primary levers driving week-on-week volatility in search-led iGaming interest.

Top gainers

1. Slovenia +113.5% — Residual attention from Kranjska Gora Alpine Ski tournament (Jan 3-4) carried into the reporting week, amplified by Ljubno Ski Jumping World Cup (Jan 9-11): national hero Nika Prevc swept both events at home (30th & 31st career wins), 8,500 fans in attendance, historic Prevc siblings milestone. Pre-Olympic fever compounding.
2. Turkey +34% — TFF betting probe dragged mainstream football attention into “illegal betting” narratives, expanding generic betting-term queries and accelerating short-cycle discovery behavior.
3. Saudi Arabia +24.9% — Spanish Super Cup (Supercopa de España) in Jeddah, El Clásico final: Barcelona 3-2 Real Madrid (Jan 11). Mbappé, Vinícius, Yamal, Lewandowski, Raphinha (brace) — global star power driving odds-adjacent search spike.
4. Egypt +19.7% — AFCON’s knockout-stage drama continued to concentrate user attention around matchdays, producing sharp, time-bound spikes in betting interest and accelerating engagement as elimination pressure raised stakes and attention levels.
5. Peru +10.4% — official draw for the Liga 1 2026 season generated pre-season buzz, betting market positioning on Universitario (defending champs), Alianza Lima, Sporting Cristal. Season starts Jan 30, fixture reveal typically triggers odds searches and futures betting activity.

Top decliners

1. Laos -35.9% — Regional scam-network crackdown spillover. Chen Zhi extradition (Cambodia → China, Jan 7) dominated headlines as “biggest cyber-scam kingpin arrest” — linked to Golden Triangle operations. Bangkok Post confirms Thailand coordinating with Laos on scam relocations + intelligence indicating operations shifting to Laos. Enforcement salience likely suppressing gambling-intent queries.
2. Denmark -32.3% — Danish Superliga winter break (early Dec – mid-Feb) — zero domestic league fixtures during Jan 5-11. Background regulatory noise: new advertising rules phased rollout began 2026 (whistle-to-whistle ban, under-25 restrictions). Combination of fixture drought + post-holiday regulatory reopening may explain shift toward compliance/news intent.
3. Singapore -32.2% — Storm Elli (Germany) + Storm Goretti (UK) triggered mass European football cancellations Jan 9-11. Singapore Pools announcements page flooded with abandonment/refund notices, including Bundesliga, Eredivisie, English EFL and FA Cup fixtures.
4. Netherlands -29.3% — Snow-driven fixture chaos delayed match certainty, removing the standard weekend discovery layer (fixtures → previews → odds) and compressing betting-driven search volume.
5. Bulgaria -29.2% — Drop reflects the January 1 regulatory reset: eurozone accession (mandatory dual pricing, payment system overhauls, enhanced AML integration) combined with a GGR tax hike from 20% to 25%. Search intent shifted from betting to compliance queries as operators navigate the transition — compounded by Parva Liga’s winter break eliminating domestic football content.

Market spotlight: Slovenia | +113.5%

Slovenia posted the week’s most explosive growth — more than doubling search intent as back-to-back FIS World Cup events transformed the Alpine nation into the center of global winter sports attention.

The surge began January 3–4 in Kranjska Gora, where the women’s Alpine Ski World Cup delivered a storybook upset. Switzerland’s Camille Rast dethroned Mikaela Shiffrin in the slalom, snapping the American’s dominance and generating headlines across European sports media. 

Four days later, the spotlight shifted to Ljubno ob Savinji for the women’s ski jumping World Cup (January 9–11), where Nika Prevc delivered a masterclass. The national hero won both individual competitions to claim her 30th and 31st career World Cup victories. The 8,500-strong crowd witnessed history: Nika and her brother Domen became the first siblings in ski jumping history to simultaneously lead the men’s and women’s overall World Cup standings.

The Prevc dynasty narrative adds another dimension: family storylines (Nika joins brothers Peter, Domen, and Cene on the World Cup circuit) cross over into mainstream media, pulling casual audiences toward betting markets they might otherwise ignore. With the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics now less than a month out, Slovenia’s January performance may preview sustained pre-Games interest in Alpine and Nordic disciplines.

Regional snapshot

Europe

Europe broadly softened during the week, underscoring how fragile betting-driven discovery becomes when fixture certainty breaks down. Slovenia’s outsized spike demonstrates that demand can still be “manufactured” by nationally resonant sporting moments, even during winter breaks, but this remains the exception rather than the rule.

Across Northern and Western Europe, weather-related postponements and winter league pauses continue to disrupt the standard discovery chain, pushing user intent toward administrative, news, and compliance-related queries.

Middle East

The primary global catalyst of the week — the Spanish Super Cup final in Jeddah — has now played out, and its short-cycle impact on search-driven betting interest is beginning to fade. However, the region is not entering a demand vacuum. Regular domestic league action resumes during the week, led by the Saudi Pro League. 

Local competition continues to generate steady baseline interest through recognizable star power and a consistent match calendar — most notably via figures such as Cristiano Ronaldo. Near term, this implies a shift from event-driven spikes to more stable, repeatable acquisition flows.

Africa

AFCON 2025 remains underway and continues to be the single most important driver of betting interest across the continent. The tournament still concentrates user attention around matchdays, producing synchronized surges in interest.

For operators, it remains the most predictable acquisition window, characterized by high mobile share and strong sensitivity to load speed, localized payments, and live betting availability.

Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific remains highly sensitive to enforcement and regulatory narratives, with Laos’ sharp decline illustrating how quickly acquisition collapses when headlines shift from sport to fraud, scams, and illegal gambling operations. 

Cross-border law enforcement activity continues to crowd out recreational betting intent, replacing it with risk-averse, informational search behavior.

Next week’s watchlist

Africa

AFCON 2025 enters its decisive phase, with only the semifinals and final remaining. Tournament momentum is now highly concentrated, amplifying national-level betting interest in countries still in contention — Morocco (host nation), Senegal, Egypt, and Nigeria.

In these markets, expect heightened pre-match and in-play activity driven by patriotic narratives, knockout pressure, and condensed match schedules. For operators, this creates short but extremely high-intent acquisition windows, with sharp spikes around lineups, goals, and live markets as national attention peaks.

Northern Europe

Severe winter conditions remain a material risk factor. Snowstorms Elli and Goretti continue to disrupt travel and infrastructure, increasing the probability of football postponements, abandoned fixtures, and reduced certainty across broader sports calendars.

The likely impact is further suppression of betting-driven discovery, as users shift from match-focused intent toward administrative updates, cancellations, and refund-related queries. Volatility should be expected to persist as long as fixture reliability remains compromised, with delayed rather than immediate rebounds once matches are rescheduled.

Turkey

Betting-related scrutiny remains in active circulation following the Turkish Football Federation’s decision to refer more than 200 coaches and agents as part of an ongoing betting investigation. The expanding scope of the probe keeps “illegal betting” narratives embedded in mainstream sports coverage, extending their lifecycle beyond a single news spike.

As a result, Turkey is likely to see continued elevated search interest around generic betting terms, legality questions, and football-adjacent odds queries. This environment typically inflates top-of-funnel traffic, but with mixed conversion quality as users oscillate between curiosity-driven discovery and news-only intent.